Western Service Area

DELCORA’s Western Regional Treatment Plant (WRTP), built in 1974, was originally designed to treat 44 MGD and is currently rated for 50 million gallons per day (MGD).  Approximately a third of the plant’s flow is from Sun Oil’s Marcus Hook Refinery and Kimberly-Clark’s Chester Mill.  The plant receives flow from and the Authority owns and maintains 126 miles of gravity lines and 3 miles of force mains which includes the local collection systems of the City of Chester, the Boroughs of Parkside, Trainer, and Upland, and portions of Chester Township.  The City of Chester’s collection system is a system that combines storm water and sanitary sewer systems with 27 combined sewer overflow chambers.  Other flow contributors to WRTP are the Southern Delaware and Central Delaware County Authorities, as well as portions of the Boroughs of Marcus Hook, Rose Valley and Brookhaven, as well as Nether Providence Township. 

The facilities have benefited from many recent upgrades and the plant, remote facilities, and collection system are operated, maintained, and monitored through extensive use of automation, Geographical Information System (GIS), and a Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) system.  The WRTP is a conventional activated sludge facility and consists of preliminary treatment utilizing 2 aerated grit chambers, 8 primary clarifiers, 4 - 2.5 MG aeration tanks, 5 secondary clarifiers, and disinfection by chlorine with discharge to the Delaware River.  Solids handling is accomplished via 4 DAF thickeners, 3 belt filter presses, and 2 multiple hearth incinerators.  The WRTP also serves as a large regional trucked waste receiving facility for septic, sludge, industrial wastewaters, and grease.  In addition to the above, DELCORA also owns and maintains five inverted siphons, six lift stations, multiple air relief/vacuum chambers and two pump stations, (30 MGD capacity and 2 MGD capacity) in Western Delaware County while also maintaining one lift station and one pump station for the Southern Delaware County Authority.